Senate Bill 234 requires trash haulers to offer recycling pickup at single-family homes by 2011, followed by a rollout plan to offer recycling to multi-family developments and commercial businesses in subsequent years. Another provision of the bill establishes a 4-cent recycling fee on bottles. Those funds would be diverted to municipalities and private haulers to help fund the curbside program. The bill passed the Senate 17-3, April 29, and on Tuesday, May 11, the measure passed the House, 26-12.

But any bill that requires new fees and allocates the funds must pass by a three-fifths majority in both chambers.
While SB 234 received that majority in the Senate, it failed in the House. Still, the measure’s on its way to the governor’s desk for his signature.

Pete Schwartzkopf

Republicans, including Weeks, are already questioning the bill’s constitutionality. Weeks, on Thursday, May 13, said he’s concerned about the “fast-track mentality” of passing measures and the constitutionality of the so-called bottle bill. He also said that state officials are slipping down a slippery slope with new ways to create revenue in Delaware. Weeks also attacked Schwartzkopf for raising taxes because Schwartzkopf supported SB 234.

State officials say the measure would help reduce costs in the long run by reducing materials headed to landfills. Democrats have also come forward insisting the 4-cent allocation is not a new tax. It is diversion of an existing fee to the curbside program, say bill supporters.

Keep in mind, the state already has a 5-cent deposit on bottles already in place.

Kevin Spence has been a reporter for the Cape Gazette since 2004. Prior to living in Delaware, he was a senior correspondent for the New York Blade News. He completed the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in 2001. In 2000, Spence was awarded a Scripps Howard Foundation grant to study in Israel and the Occupied Territories. In the same year, Spence wrote his master’s thesis about the black market economy under Castro while studying in Cuba. He also speaks Spanish.